Nature's Balance In Insect Rearing?

Having read some of the so far excellent book, Principles and Procedures for Rearing High Quality Insects , I wonder about something that didn't quite set well with me awhile back when experimenting with raising mushrooms indoors, (Mycology, the science of fungi).

They said it could not be done, that is the online hobby mycologists.  There are certain "rules" that are accepted among groups of people who do certain things and sterile procedure in hobby mycology as well as professional mycology is a must.  If one deviates from the norm, they are usually scoffed at and outcast or called a liar or very lucky if they succeed in doing anything without following protocol.

If one has been following my blog, one surely must have figured out by now that I sometimes do not follow the politically correct path in doing things.  Where's the fun in that?  The sense of adventure and discovery?  I hope to never be accused of fitting in a mass production mold but I will admit at times and depending on one's goals, the proven method is usually the best and fastest way to reach success with any venture.

What did they say could not be done?  Well, it was simply an experiment with bringing nature indoors instead of trying to battle the enemy by creating the perfect conditions in which it thrives.  Contamination in the form of various molds is the enemy of the mycologist.  What I could not get them to realize and believe is that they create the very thing which they fight in providing the perfect environment for such.  How is it that mushrooms grow in nature without any help from we who think we have figured out the perfect scenarios?  There is balance where the good naturally wins if conditions are to the good's detriment or we would all cease to exist on this planet.

It's all about anaerobic(bad) versus aerobic (good) bacteria or otherwise known as beneficial microbes that thrive in the presence of ample food, moisture and oxygen, as far as mycology is concerned anyway and I'm wondering if it applies to Entomology as well in rearing insects in captivity and in large numbers...in sterile conditions.

I just a few minutes ago witnessed something that fits perfectly with this as I walked along in search of a place to gather native worms to stock my newly dug worm bed at home.  The area at my workplace where there are old sludge drying pits that are big squared off brick border sand pits that adult grasshoppers find the perfect place to deposit their eggs.  There are at least many thousands of newly hatched grasshoppers all over the place in the pits and outside the brick borders as the baby hoppers are scaling the short walls to find their home for the next several weeks in the ample grasses.  Here's one in my worm bucket next to a penny...

Tiny and cute little fella eh?  Hard to imagine in a few weeks I'm probably going to be catching and eating this little dude or selling him/her as fish bait haha!  These many baby hoppers hatched without any help from me or anyone else on this earth but they had help.

The point I'm getting at is in nature there is a balance that begins at the basic of levels with microbes that are continually in a war.  When the conditions are so that the beneficial microbes can flourish and outnumber the bad microbes then all is good with the world we have created to do whatever it is we want to do such as growing mushrooms from spores in a flower pot of aerobic worm castings inside a house full of mold spores without any sterile procedure at all.

How is rearing insects any different than growing mushrooms?  I don't ask that in a smart-assed sort of way, I really don't know but plan to learn if there is a difference.   We create these enclosures to rear insects indoors in sterile conditions or as close to sterile as we can get with hepa filtration and the whole nine yards just like mycology.  Watch out!  When we alter the environment for keeping out the badness we also are removing that in which the good can thrive and if badness comes in, what is there to do battle with it?  Chemicals?  Radiation? Hmmm.  In my experience, badness will find a way in and often by then it's too late to win and one must then start over.

I don't want to close nature out, rather, I want to learn to work with it.  It has gotten it right for countless generations and so who am I to argue with success on that level?  The strong has survived and evolved but they did it not alone.  A whole host of tiny things we often take for granted made it possible.  At least that's what I think.  To apply it to my desires may be opening a whole new big can of worms. :)